


The Men and Women of Letters' Database

by Petra1999 (orphan_account)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Hunters & Hunting, Men of Letters, Men of Letters Bunker, Original Character(s), POV First Person, POV Original Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-23 20:05:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7478115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Petra1999
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robin (OC) moves into the bunker and - together with Charlie - creates a database for all the information of the Men and Women of Letters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Charlie returns from death AU  
> Set after season 11, everything is good, planet is saved, Sam and Dean continue hunting regular monsters  
> Might include season 11 spoilers!  
> No trigger warnings thus far.

_You have found these manual files in the help section of the Men and Women of Letters' database's user interface. These files are written to not only assist you in your first attempt on navigating through this hell of a mess, but also to tell you how it was created, so that you understand why it is such a mess. I also excuse myself for writing stories, yes nearly diary entries, in here. You must know that creating the MAWOL database was a life's work, and not always much exciting. I found joy in writing down the history and backstory of the long creation of this beast of a database, and I hope that you find just as much joy in reading it, especially when times are grim, or when you feel like you need something to hold onto._

 

Early 2018 I was a barely adult young woman, and I was searching for full-time work. For months I tried to find a fitting job, something I could concentrate my whole energy on. I was working a boring part-time job as an IT assistant in a local library. My job was to catalogue new books and throw old ones out of the system. That was not the part I disliked about it; the strictness and the people were my biggest motivations to find something better to do.

I had barely anything. I left my family and friends back home, far away from the USA, to live the life I always wanted to. However, my dreams seemed to fade away slowly with my happiness. I was living in an inexpensive flat somewhere close to my workplace, and spent my evenings trying to find a nice job on the Internet. After three months of doing so, I finally decided that maybe such life wasn't for me, and one day I decided to go for a nice walk in a park, declaring officially my lost war of finding happiness. It was that afternoon that I saw a red-haired woman looking through some bushes who caught my attention.

"Excuse me?" I asked carefully.

She spun around, clearly caught off-guard, and raised a knife at me.

I backed away a step or two and threw my hands in the air, but the woman lowered her knife quickly and mumbled apologies.

"I'm sorry, there's someone following me. You really shouldn't be near me."

I did not know what to say, and before she could begin to talk again two tall men jumped out of the bushes with guns in their hands. My own arms were still in the air, however in my mind I already located the pepper spray that I kept in my bag.

 

_The database itself took years to create, and it is made to be easily scalable (something we didn't manage to do that greatly), and to last however long it is needed to (this we are sure of). It is designed for Men and Women of Letters, as well as hunters, and allies of such. It should, however, not fall directly into the hands of a temporary ally, or even an enemy._

_It contains information much more valuable than just one or two innocent lives, as many more lives can be saved with it. Keep this in mind before using any of it. If you do not agree to this, I advise you to use old-fashioned methods of finding information like lore._

_The information in the database is all we have, but only up to this point. Knowing that, you shouldn't rely on it with your life. There are things out there unknown even to this database, and no matter how big of a creature or how small of a detail, please file a Proposal of Update in the Data Version menu, as it could save someone's life._

 

The red-haired woman did not seem scared, only surprised, as she turned around. The men were staring at her, one with a stern face, the other, he had shoulder-long hair, with a softer look.

"Guys! Finally! Holy moly, and I thought something bad was chasing me!" She sighed and stepped closer to the man, reaching out as to hug them. They reacted quickly, backing away and getting their weapons ready. I used the moment to get the pepper spray out of my bag and hid it behind my back. I planned on using if anyone moved more than an inch. At least that was what I thought I would do. My heart was beating fast, and I probably wouldn't have been able to. I will never find out, though, because nobody moved in that moment.

The shorter, angry-looking man raised his voice. "Who are you?"

The woman stuttered "Ch-Charlie of course."

The answer seemed to make the man even more furious. "Yeah, right. Charlie's dead." He practically spat the last word out.

Meanwhile, my mind was racing. Someone one here was lying, and it could be that I was on the wrong side. But I did not dare to intervene.

"Yeah, uh, right. An angel brought me back. Thanks for burning my body by the way, we had to build it together again. It took a while." Charlie explained.

"You're lying!"

"Dean..." the longer-haired man interrupted him. "Maybe hear her out?"

"No!" The man who was apparently called Dean turned around to his companion. "This probably a stupid appearance-changing beast, a disgusting one!  How dare it-"

"I'm not, Dean. Hear me out. I was in heaven. There are angels in heaven. There was one who kept visiting me. We, uhm, had a thing together. I told her I wanted to go back, she had connections, the rest is history!"

Dean didn't seem to be satisfied by that. "And how do we know you're not lying?"

Then Charlie turned around, and I almost stretched out my arm to spray the pepper into her face, but I didn't, because she merely pointed at me. "Would I have spared her if I was a disgusting beast?" she said to the men while smiling at me. It reassured me somehow, but in the next moment taller man poured water over her head.

"SAM! That's cold!" Angrily she turned around. "I told you that it's me!"

Sam raised an eyebrow and looked at Dean. I followed, and noticed Dean staring at me.

"Hold still now." he said, and I did, because Sam came to me with a flasket and poured the same thing on my head.

"What was that for?" I finally dared to say, and it came out rather harsh.

"Just checking." Dean said. He was handing silverware to Charlie, who rolled her eyes while touching it, then gave it back to the man.

Sam stayed next to my side. "Sorry, that's Holy Water. And this -" he took the silverware from Dean "- is silver. Touch it please."

I did.

This all seemed very strange to me, and I began questioning whether what was happening was real or not.

"Good." Charlie's voice threw me into reality again. "Now that you know that we're not monsters, can we get to the hugging part?"

Dean did not move an inch, but Sam wrapped his arms around her after a few moments of hesitation.

"We thought you were dead. That we'd never see you again." Sam's voice was shaky as he let go of her again. As soon as he stood up right again, Dean threw himself at Charlie, who flinched, thinking that he'd hurt her, but he hugged her as well. And it was a long hug.

I stood there, awkwardly, with wet hair, and exchanged looks with Sam till the two finally backed away from each other. I put the pepper spray back in my bag and collected all my courage to ask "Back from the dead, huh? Which game are we talking about?"

Suddenly all three were staring at me.

"It's not a game." Charlie told me. At the same time Dean asked "What do we do with her?"

"Sorry, what's your name?" Sam asked me.

"Robin Hide" I answered.

 

_Every access to and change of the database is currently, and should be forever, controlled by someone in authority. Currently, in the time I am writing this, only me and my closest colleagues remain this right. I expect more and more people to use this database in the future, and I cannot stress enough how important it is that everything is under control._

_Security-wise, the database is top-notch, at least of what is possible in my time. Please set your best people on getting it updated every few years, or months even. Passwords are strong, and randomly generated often enough. Their properties can of course be changed in the administration settings, just as much as the most basic layers of security, like user groups, access and update proposals. Network security as well as spell warding and suchlike should only be changed by professionals in their field, like networking professionals or experienced witches._

"What are you doing here?" Dean still had a strict expression on his face.

"I was just going for a walk." I told the truth.

"We'll need Cas to erase her memories."

This, I didn't like at all. "Woah now. This isn't funny. What the fuck did I stumble into here? LARPing?" What I said didn't really make any sense.

Charlie just laughed, Dean and Sam looked at her with a deadpan look. I was even more confused.

"You found yourself a friend there, didn't you?" Dean said to Charlie, nodding towards me.

"We could take her with us." Charlie ignored the question.

"With us?" Sam asked.

"I thought we'd go back to the bunker."

"Yes, we were. We didn't plan on bringing a third someone, or even a stranger!" Dean said.

"But... So I can't come with you to the bunker?"

"Of course you can." Sam assured her. "Sorry, we're still a bit..." he motioned something with his hands. "We really did think that we'd never see you again."

"Well, I'm back now! And I'm coming with you. And I want to ask her-" she turned towards me "- to come with us."

"No way, we're not keeping her." Dean decided.

I was offended. "Excuse you," I began, "No one is 'keeping' me. Besides, a bunker?! Would you please tell me what's really going on?"

"I think we should tell her," Charlie said, and I loved her for that. "She wants to know, and she deserves to know because you poured Holy Water on her without asking."

"That's not how it works." Dean interjected. "And we don't even know if she wants to come."

Then they all looked at me again, and without thinking I said "Of course."

"Great, now that that's settled-" Charlie said, but Sam interrupted her.

"Wait, you still don't know who we are and you want to go with us anyways?" he questioned me.

"Seems a bit suspicious if you ask me." Dean scratched his stubble.

"I don't really have anything to lose except a boring job," I explained myself. "Besides, if angels are real, I want to meet them too" I joked.

"They're not that great," Dean said. Then he noticed a side-glance of Sam and added "Okay, some are."

"He loves angels." Sam corrected him.

Charlie nodded. "He really does."

"Can we not change the topic here? Please?" Dean stepped closer to me. "I'm Dean, and that's my brother Sam. We're the Winchesters. We're hunters. Monsters are real, we hunt them. Yes, some angels are assholes, we hunt them too." He turned towards his brother. "That was it. The talk. Now she knows. But she thinks we're delusional and doesn't want to go with us anymore, because she doesn't believe us. Problem solved. Isn't that right, kid?"

It took me a few seconds to understand that he was talking to me again. "Uhm, actually, I like to believe a lot."

"Well, you shouldn't." Dean seemed to have long made his decision about me.

I, thinking about my current uneventful life, had also made a decision. Delusional or not, they had thought that Charlie was dead, but Charlie wasn't. That was enough to keep me interested. Thankfully Charlie also seemed fond of the ides of me coming with them, as she started to argue again:

"I'll be coming with you to the bunker, you, Sam and Cas will be off hunting, and I'll be alone in the bunker. I'm guessing I'm not allowed pets, so why not her?"

"We're not bringing her with us for you to-" Dean wanted to start again, but Sam interrupted.

"Okay, that's enough you two. I say Robin is welcome to come with us, but-" he looked at me "-if you decide that it's not for you and leave, we'll erase your memories."

"That's fine. Not like I could remember that afterwards." I reasoned, but it sounded more like a joke. I was nervous, because only Dean had to be okay with it for me to come to the so-called bunker. In that moment, by the way, I thought it was a joke name for an old house or the basement of a dirty apartment.

"Wait, so Charlie won't be hunting with us?" Dean finally realized what the red-haired woman had said.

"I think I'm good, thank you. I'll be your stay-at-home mom, a-k-a chef, because I won't let you eat burgers and pizza every day." Charlie responded.

"…but pie, yes?" Dean's facial expression had suddenly changed into one of a pleading child.

"Sometimes," the girl said with a grin. "Maybe."

"And you'll be helping around too?" Sam tried to tie me into conversation again.

"Of course. I can be the cleaning lady or something. As long as I get to see angels once in a while."

"Oh, you'll see one hanging around watching Netflix often enough, don't worry."

I laughed at the, what I thought, joke, and looked over to Dean. He was deep in thought, but after exchanging some looks with his brother he sighed and said "Alright, she can come. Welcome on board kiddo. You got a lot to learn if you're gonna live with the Winchesters."

I couldn't help but smile from one ear to the other, and I desperately wanted to call my boss that I would be quitting.

"He's serious," Charlie told me as we started walking out of the park. "If you don't learn some things, you'll probably be dead soon."

Needless to say, I was nervous.

_The database is always online; however, you should download at least parts of it to use it offline. This is really important. No, the notification every two minutes to do this cannot be turned off, for a reason. Only download everything if you have enough space to do so. Check this first. I imagine in the future this won't be much of a problem, but how would I know, it is only 2018 after all. Please also search for updates on the monster you're fighting (if you have a connection) before using any of the information. Automatic updates for the whole database can be set in the Data Version menu._

_The data includes all of the following and more: information on Men and Women of Letters, hunters, other users of the database, allies, and other people; information about monsters and other creatures (in super- and sub categories); important parts of lore; pictures; information on objects (including weapons and books), spells, curses, rituals, and so on; languages; information on history like the biggest battles of the hunters (especially of the kind Dean and Sam Winchester, who me and my colleague interviewed for hours without end); and, with permission, copies of the original books and journals, as well as coordinates of important locations._

_All data is sorted into groups, like the users, and only users in certain groups can access certain information._

_Here is the team that created this database:_

_Robin Hide, born 1999, database designer, programmer, and writer of this text  
Charlie Bradbury, born 1985, security specialist and hunter_

_Here are people who helped to fill it with information, and ward it:_

_Sam and Dean Winchester, hunters_  
John Winchester, hunter (indirectly)  
Bobby Singer, hunter (indirectly)  
Castiel, angel of god  
Crowley, king of hell (partly unknowingly, partly unwillingly)  
Rowena, witch (partly unknowingly, partly unwillingly)  
"Chuck"  
Jody Mills, police officer  
Donna Hanscum, police officer  
Benny Lafitte, vampire (specifically asked to be listed here by Dean Winchester) (indirectly)  
All Men and Women of Letters (A list of all names can be found in the database.)  
Ones that didn't want to be named  
And many more.

_A special thanks goes out to the Ghostfacers, who kept motivating us to stay serious and professional._

_I hope everyone who uses the database also plans on adding to it. Unconfirmed information is of course marked as such in the user interface._

_Thank you for being interested._


	2. Chapter 2

_As I have already mentioned, the creatures in the database are divided into sub-groups, and some of these are further divided into sub-sub-groups. Which reminds me, I'll be referring to the groups "Creatures", "People" et cetera as super-groups._

_Anyways, some of the sub-groups are for creatures for example include: gods (which includes the actual god), the undead, from heaven, and so on. Examples of sub-sub-groups, of 'from heaven', are archangels and angels._

_When creating the database like that I soon had a big problem. An example would be Castiel, the angel. Do doubt a creature, an angel of course, but also an ally, so a person as well. Therefore, Castiel is in two super-groups. Since I realized that, I revamped the whole system. Fortunately, only the creatures part was the only one done at that moment. Now, whenever adding data, you can check one or multiple super-groups (and sub-groups, and sub-sub-groups), and then add the properties required for them. Of course, some super-groups are exclusive; something can't be a person and a spell._

 

I realized, after a long ride in an old but well-cared-for car (Dean proudly told me that it was a Chevrolet Impala 1967, and yes, it is in the database), that "the bunker" was indeed that -  a bunker. But already walking down the stairs I noticed that it wasn't just any bunker. There were big tables with old-fashioned lamps on them, and so many books. It looked like a library, so many book were there.

Sam must have noticed my expression as he said "It used to belong to the Men of Letters. Now that's just me and my brother, though." He gestured towards Dean. "And Charlie of course, the first woman of letters."

I nodded to make sure he knew that I had been listening, but I didn't know what to say. Honestly, I was just glad that the group didn't bring me to a place full of drugs and cigarettes, or anything else crazy. But this was nice.

"You changed it a bit, huh?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah, you know, after the whole thing with Chuck, we needed a bit of change." Dean explained.

"Who's Chuck?"

The man sighed.

 

_Another thing I've noticed was that certain data are connected. Of course, every angel has a connection to every other angel, including archangels. But also to god. And Lucifer of course shouldn't be missed out; another great example for something being in more than one category. But that's not everything. Every angel has a connection to an angel blade, for example, which is an object; a weapon to be exact. This was easy to implement into the database however, because which weapons a creature uses and which it is affected by are simply some of their properties._

_Because of this, properties of a set of data can be another set of data. Properties can also be simple text, images, numbers, dates, etc, next to locations, languages, and other data sets._

_Sets of data can also have another relationship with a different set than super- or sub-relationships or properties, which is similarity. This is shown at the bottom of the user interface of an entry where it says "similar data". Similarly, can be entered by a user, but it's mostly automatically generated using an algorithm that checks similarity in the properties of data. This will make, for example, archangels show automatically as a similarity to angels, because they have many properties that are the same._

_Another thing visible in the user interface are the names of the users who created, changed, and approved information. It is even possible to view which exact properties were change by whom, when, and by whom they were approved._

_A click on the name redirects to a profile of the database user, for example me. It shows a picture, and contact details like mobile number, and information whether that person still lives or not, and who to contact instead. (All of this is not required to put into the user profile, but it's always good in case somebody needs your help. I ask you to, if you haven't already, fill all of it out in your user settings.)_

_I have already written about the existence of user groups. However, I want to list some examples here. Keep in mind that users can be in multiple groups._

_Creators: Have helped create the original database and have permission to do anything. Examples: me, Charlie Bradbury, Sam and Dean Winchester_  
Administration: same permissions as Creators  
Men and Women of Letters (MAWOL): default permissions  
Hunters: default permissions  
Police Staff: very limited permissions

_Users can also, in their user settings and invisible for anyone else, define another user that will join that user group in case the user dies._

 

**Author's Note:**

> Subscribe to get notified, leave kudos if you enjoyed! Thanks!


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